REPORT ON KEY MOBILIZERS’

REFRESHER TRAINING

at RECONCILE CENTRE, YEI

16th-26th AUGUST 2011

Group photo of part icipants

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Facilitated by:

Milcah Lalam; Program Manager, RECONCILE

Sebit Nicholas; Peacebuilding Officer, RECONCILE

Bakata Peter Martin; Peacebuilding Officer, RECONCILE

Abanzi Elisa Michaelson; Education Inclusion Officer, ACROSS.

Table of contents:

1. Introduction and background

2. Objective of the training

3. Training process

4. Results of the workshop

5. Challenges

6. Recommendations

7. Conclusions

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1. Introduction and background

The Key Mobilizers’ training, which was conducted for two weeks, is a refresher aimed

at mentoring them and increasing their knowledge on how they can best improve their

work in the community.

The workshop drew seventeen participants from five states of Jonglei, Upper Nile,

Eastern Equatoria, Central Equatoria and Western Equatoria.

2. Objective of the training

The objectives of the training include:

To help key mobilizers understand what the most important needs are in your

community for building the peace and trauma healing.

To improve their facilitation skills in carrying out community activities by using

integrated participatory methods

To equip them with tools on how to report on the impact of our intervention in

their local communities

3. Scope of the Training content:

This follow up training is aimed at increasing the capacities of key mobilizers in the

following areas;

Community Mobilization

Planning, Monitoring & Reporting

Participatory Integrated Community Development (PICD)

Facilitation Skills

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DAY ONE:

Who is a Key Mobilizer?

Key Mobilizers are RECONCILE volunteers, who are committed to the task of

promoting Civic Education and Trauma Healing in their local communities.

As key mobilizers; it is your job to “make things happen” in the community. Remember

that mobilize has the root “mobile.”

Roles of Key Mobilizers:

Assisting and supporting you in providing/organizing training

Monitoring the progress/process of program implementation where workshops

have been held; sharing resources and consultation

Providing basic trauma counseling and referral of serious cases

Organizing and leading seminars and workshops

Provide training in the form of seminars and community forums in their

respective communities on the topics of Trauma Healing/Civic Education

Provide information to community institutions (such as schools and clinics),

community organizations and religious institutions on the topics of Trauma

Healing and Civic Education

Provide monthly reports of their activities to the Field Coordinators they are

assigned to work under

Devote an average of one day per week to carrying out these tasks.

Issues, Approaches and Challenges in Peacebuilding:

This was an exercise given to participants’ to reflect into their different areas and

identify the major issues that trigger conflicts and psychosocial problem prompting

intervention. The participants were divided into different groups according to their

states to discuss the following issues. These were the findings in the all the groups:

Jonglei, Western, Central and Eastern Equatoria States

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1. Major issues: Peacebuilding, trauma

2. What approaches or interventions have you tried?

3. Challenges

Issues:

Cattle raiding

Child abduction

Land/Border disputes

Grumbling over grazing land and water for cattle

Girls’ enrollment

Gender Based Violence’s (GBV)

LRA atrocities

Land lease conflict

Alcoholism

Early marriage

Tribalism/ nepotism

Corruption

Poor health services

Tribal conflict

Practicing of witchcraft (birds, Sora and ngasa

HIV/AIDs

Safe drinking water

Approaches

Peace conferences

Training on GBV (Gender-Based Violence)

Training on peace and conflict management

Training on human rights

Cattle camp initiative

Guidance counseling

Creating awareness on human rights in churches, rallies and public gather ing

Warning communities about HIV/AIDs

Challenges

Lack of communication

No cooperation between local community

Lack of funds

Training manuals and stationeries are limited

Lack of the skill

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Bad roads: Transportation of key mobilizers to different communities to facilitate

meetings…

…Seasons: for instance, during the rainy season, travel is difficult

Some of the communities are resistant to reconciliation

DAY TWO:

Community Mobilization

The Participants came up with these definitions:

Community: community is a group of people who live together and share similar ideas,

resources, norms, value, attitude and cultures.

Mobilization:- is the process of bring people together for specific purpose in order to

achieve a certain goal.

If we are doing community mobilization, we need to involve all people together.

Because each person has an important role to play in the community, we need to

involve people.

The most important in the community is a family, because some of the problems start

from the family, and also if there is no fighting in the family it will bring peace to the

community all at large.

Community structures

Social institutions:

Church, mosque, hospital, youth/women, farmers association

Cultural institutions:

Family, elders, traditional leaders, clan, youth/women

Government institution:

Headmen/women/ school, hospital, army and organized forces

Non- governmental institutions

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CBO, INGOs, National NGOs, Youth and women Assoc.

The importance of the community mobilization as a process:

Community mobilization is agenda of its own change if we need to build peace we need

to start from the ground roots instead of starting from the high level. Above all,

participation is voluntary, so we need to influence community members to participate.

One of the examples for the important of the community mobilization was given by the

key Mobilizer of Maridi County. He said when we organized the workshop on trauma

healing things in Maridi, the first thing we did was the mobilization of the community

leader through meetings with them and agreed to hold a workshop. Other additions

was also added by the key Mobilizer of Yei River County on the importance of meeting

the community first before the activity takes place.

Challenges in Community Mobilization

Here participants went for group work to discuss the different challenges they face in

community mobilization. Here are some examples of what they came up with.

What are the challenges in community mobilization approach?

Poor communication system

Lack of transportation, bad roads, distance

Lack of skill

Lack of funds

Insecurity

Weather, season

Lack of good cooperation between key mobilizers and local government

Hunger

Ignorance

Politicians

Language barriers

If you yourself cannot change , how can you change the others?

Culture of salience, domination of the local elite, or gender inequality militate

against people’s participation

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Analysis

How do you bring together young people in your community for a common purpose?

Mapping communication system

Map all the communication means and which of them are most effective

For whom is this activity designed? Youth, Women, Children, Church

leaders/Religions, Organized forces, Traditional leaders, Widow/orphan,

IDPs/Returnees, Host community

How do we mobilize them?

Through local authority

Media, megaphone

Verbal information

Face to face discussions

Season

Analyze which season is appropriate for community activities

November, December, January, February, March etc

What kind of activities are on going

DAYS THREE, FOUR & FIVE:

These days focused on planning and reporting.

Planning:

What is planning? It is all about answering the five W’s:

What, Why, When, Where, Who?

Two types of plans: Short and long term

Three types of short term planning tools: Activity, Weekly, and Monthly plans

Questions and sharing:

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Projects aimed at changing harmful beliefs and practices in a community must engage

and be lead by members of that community organization changes can facilitate and

support change, yet the changes must occur in the hearts and minds of community

members themselves

Okot shared one of the events which took place in Eastern Equatorial State, where the

government built the school without mobilizing the community. That school ended up

with no people going in, and it is to become a place for the cattle. Another example was

given by Isaiah Ayuen on the one project in Anyidi Payam Bor county, Jonglei state.

The community needed water to be drill in the area, but an organization came to build a

school, which is not the greatest need in the community. That brought

misunderstanding between the community and organization because the community

needed water.

Monitoring and Evaluation

What is monitoring?

Definition of monitoring by participants:

Monitoring is a continuous follow-up checking collection of information and

controlling the steps of activities, success achieving and challenges in a

systematic manner within a given time frame.

There are two levels of monitoring:

1. Organization level

2. Field or community level

In the organization level we monitor three things:

1. Activities: whether done

2. Outputs/ results

3. Inputs the material which we have put in work

At the community level/field:

1. Outcome

2. Input

3. Sustainability

Why monitoring? To ensure that the planned activity is done as was intended

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Facilitator role

What are the roles of facilitator?

Guide the learning process, to give knowledge and skill

To lead the discussion

To encourage the participants

To provide materials for the workshop

To make reports and evaluate the activity

Passing questions to the participants

WEEK TWO:

Week two was entirely on PICD:

Participatory Integrated Community Development (PICD)

Lessons from the above process

- Though participatory, the community was never fully involved in the planning

process

- The planning was left to the local elites

- A combination of what worked well from all the approaches was seen as better

and it filled in the gaps existing in other processes

- Thus PICD was born

PICD calls for:

- Positive change within communities

- The change must be integrated and participatory

PICD is a participatory planning process which is all inclusive. It includes the

marginalized women, different tribes, and youth, elderly all coming together and

making decisions. When a community is not contributing towards a program run by an

organization, there is no sustainability.

PICD phases and process:

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Phase 1: Community Entry Process

Phase 2: Initiation stage/ awareness creation and attitude change

River code

Secret in the box

The boat is sinking

Phase 3: Data gathering and Situation Analysis

Phase 4: Design (planning phase)

Phase 5: Implementation

Phase 6: Evaluation

The planning cycle in PICD

As a part of PICD in the “Initiation stage, awareness creation and attitude change,” the

participants were involved in different role plays. These were used as “attitude changing tools.”

Here are some examples of the roles plays, the questions asked and lessons learned:

RIVER CODE: This role-play that depicts three people, two men and one woman walking

together and discussing issues. They suddenly meet a flooded river. They find a man working

Re-Plan

Gathering Data

Evaluate Analyze

Plan

Implementation

Monitor

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near the swollen river on his farm. Feeling trapped and unable to go over to the other side of

the river where they have a function, they ask the man how they can cross the river. The man

offers to help them. He offers his free services and carries the first two people, the men, across

the swollen river. The woman refuses to be carried and requests to be guided to walk across the

river.

This role-play should be done outside the room. The participants should be asked to use their

two senses of seeing and hearing only.

Which of the characteristics would you want to be?

Man who helped the people cross the river

A woman who want to be learn something

Stone to provide a pathway

What advice can you give to the man helping the people?

Is better to teach people cross the river than carrying them

Give the person chance to tell what the person need help in.

Do not overload yourself

Mobilize the community build a bridge

What advice would you give to those being carried?

Try to learn on how to do things on your own

Bear the conditions according to where they are

Learn by seeing what others are doing

Ask how it’s done

Learn to struggle and cross

Avoid laziness

Appreciate the man who carried them

Experience the process of crossing the river

Learn how to swim

Examples of projects which represent the failed community projects in the South Sudan

communities

CBO in Mugwo payam-Yei County called PASS

Farmers association in Tombura county

Balanda students association community

Why did these projects fail?

Reliance on external funding

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No local ownership

Lack of community participation

Lack of accountability

Lack of commitment

Ignorance

Greed

What should we do?

Create transparency

Share the idea with the local community

Building grassroots relationship

Encourage local ownership

What lessons did we learn from this role play?

Adopting positive attitude

Not relying on outsiders

Ask for help from somebody

Community involvement in all levels

SECRET IN THE BOX: Three people are chosen from among the participants. One who had

most widely traveled (Internationally), one who had traveled moderately (within Africa) and

one who was locally traveled in Sudan (within their own home area). A box containing various

items but sealed is given to the most widely traveled and asked to name the items in the box by

shaking and hearing the sounds and guessing. The second one who was moderately traveled is

blind folded and asked to touch the items in the box and name them without removing them

from the box. The box is opened, the third person who was locally traveled is asked to look at

what is in the box, consulting with other participants and naming the items, even reading the

labels (as the people mention the items, they are listed on the flip chart).

After the role play, the different people were likened to different actors in development. The

most widely traveled represented INGOs and government, the moderately traveled to churches,

and the least traveled to community leaders.

Why did the person who travelled least get all the marks?

He can see and touch all the things

Has enough time to look into the boxes

Help from the other group members

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Why did the person who moderately travelled get more than the most travelled?

Able to feel

Made an effort to know what is in the box

By touching enable him/her to identify

Why the most travelled get little marks?

Did not care to know have little time to check

He did not ask for the box to be open

What should we do?

Ask the community what their needs are

Share the idea with the community on how to solve their problems

Build the capacity of the community members

Carry awareness for both the community and government and NGOs

Lessons learned:

international organizations do not know what the community knows

Consult the community and know their priorities and problems

Community involvement is needed in order to reach your goal

THE BOAT IS SINKING: The role play has 8 people in the boat in the middle of a lake.

Inside the boat there is a doctor, soldier, farmer, woman with a child, student, headmaster,

businessman and the boat rider. Each one of them has a luggage. As they sail along, a storm

breaks out, the wind is too much and the boat begins to sink. The crew and the passengers get

worried and decide to throw out luggage. People cry about their luggage but they have to do it,

the student cries about his books. The boat continues to sink and the boatman says he has to

throw out someone. Each person tries to explain why he or she cannot be thrown. The

headmaster claims he cannot be thrown because he is in charge of the students, the doctor says

he is important because the sick people need him, the farmer brings the supplies and the

community needs them, the woman has children and she has to take care of them. The student

is the new generation; while the soldier also says he should not be thrown out. However, they

begin by throwing out the student, the farmer, and the soldier whom they think are not very

important. They follow up with the woman with a child. Finally only the crew, the

businessman, headmaster and the doctor survive.

Does this scenario happen in our community in South Sudan? - Yes

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How do we compare what happen in the role play to community development?

Scholarships from other countries which are not given to the needy

Opportunities for orphans scholarships

Road constructions in Jonglei state

Local chiefs neglected from the government pay list

Exclusion of minority groups in church women activity in malakal

Why these things happened?

Greediness, Selfishness

Lack of transparency

Lack of accountability

Over looting

Segregations/discrimination

What should we do?

Talk to their MPs

Awareness/advocacy: Let the community know their rights

Formation of a committee in the community

Selection or election of leaders who the communities trust in

Negotiate in a good and peaceful way

What lessons can we draw?

Every member of the community is equally important

Listen to the voices of each person

Persist on what you have planned

Community participation in all actions

Less privileged people are left out

We should not throw out a member of the community

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT: The participants also learned about basics to financial

management and planning, including creating a budget.

What is financial management?

- Financial management entails planning, organizing, controlling and monitoring

the financial resources of an organization to achieve objectives

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FINANCIAL CONTROL

Financial control occur when systems and procedures are established to make sure

that the financial resources of an organization are being properly handled

Seven principles of financial management: (CATVISA)

1. Consistency

2. Accountability

3. Transparency

4. Viability

5. Integrity

6. Stewardship

7. Accounting standard

Why is financial management important to NGOs?

- Helps managers make effective and efficient use of resources to achieve

objectives

- Helps NGOs to be more accountable to donors and other stake holders

- Gain respect and confidence of the funding organization, partiers and

beneficiaries

- Gives the NGO, the advantage in competition for increasing scarce resources

- Helps the NGO prepare themselves for long term financial sustainability

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5. Challenges faced in the course of the training

The content of the training topics was too big to finish within two weeks

Some areas were rushed because time was not enough

People were exhausted because the training was intensive

Travel of some participants was very difficult especially Jonglei

6. Recommendations

Prepare before time

Increase the number of training days to cover such topics into details

Divide the training into two phases to avoid exhaustion of participants

7. Conclusion

Despite challenges faced during the two week training, there was a high level of

participation. It was an enjoyable training in terms of its content and in supplementing

the capacity of key mobilizers in their communities.